If all of the ELL students share the same language (Russian),
why arent't they placed in a bilingual classroom with a
bilingual teacher? That's how it's done in my state. Once
there's a large amount of ELL students who have the same
native language they're placed in a self contained bilingual
classroom where they receive ESL services and instruction in
both English and their native language.

On 11/20/09, jmak wrote:
> I am looking for research about the best approach to use
> when placing ESL (we call them ELL) students in elementary
> school. My school has a large Russian population, and we
> used to distribute the ELL students among all of the
> classrooms (they also receive services from the ELL teacher
> and a tutor).
>
> This year my principal and the ELL teacher decided that in
> order to make scheduling ELL services easier they would
> place ALL of the ELL students in one classroom. So, I have
> all 8 of the 5th grade ELL students. They also decided,
> simultaneously, that my room would be where the 4 intensive
> special needs students would be placed (autism, behavior
> disorder, severe cognitive impairment).
>
> It seems insane to do this to a teacher on purpose. I have
> a 50/50 ratio of on-level students to far below grade level
> students.
>
> Does any research show that bunching up all of the ELL
> students in one classrom is beneficial for them? I would
> like to give them extra support, but I just have too many
> of them. I'd like to have groups with several non-ELL
> students and one or two ELL students in them... but I don't
> have enough on-level students to do that.
>
> Any thoughts on this? I'd love to hear!
>
> jmak